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What is Linseed?

What is linseed?

Linseed is a small seed, typically reddish-brown or golden-yellow. It comes from the common flax plant and is also known as flaxseed.

Linseeds add marked dietary fibre to the diet, so be careful in the quantity added to food. This seed is a laxative.

Culinary grade linseed oil has a rich, buttery taste and is useful to add richness to dishes.

How to cook linseeds

Whole or ground linseeds do not need to be cooked and can be added to almost any dish, including breads, biscuits and cakes, snack bars, and even to curries and vegetable stews. 

Linseed and flaxseed oils should never be used for cooking as they have a very low flash point and can easily burst into flame. Instead, mix linseed oil with other oils in dressings for salads and vegetables.

Linseeds are also a great binder, and work really well as an egg replacer in lots of recipes. Add 1 tbsp milled linseed to 2 tbsp water and leave to swell before adding to cakes and biscuits to bind ingredients together as an egg would.